In the US, the working class will confront a government unlike any
other in American history, which will continue and intensify a
decades-long social counterrevolution overseen by the Democrats and
Republicans. The incoming Trump administration is manned by
billionaires, generals and arch reactionaries. It is a government of, by
and for the oligarchy, committed to destroying every remaining gain won
by workers over the past century.

Trump wants to “Make America Great Again” by eliminating any
restrictions on corporate profit, from minimum wage laws and
occupational safety, health and environmental protections, to bedrock
social programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Workers
will fight against these attacks, and any illusions sections of workers
may have had in Trump are already being rapidly dispelled.

While hardly reported by the mass media, 2017 opens with a series of
strike threats and labor contract expirations in the US. These include:

145,000 workers at the largest US railroads who have been working
without a new contract for a year. The workers are opposing sweeping
health care cuts, cuts to vacation time and unsafe working hours. They
could face a strikebreaking intervention by Trump.

More than 30,000 transit workers in New York City who are holding a
mass meeting this weekend and have a January 15 contract expiration
date with no agreement in sight. Another 460 bus drivers and mechanics
for the regional transportation system in Dayton, Ohio have voted to
strike on January 9 over health care and work conditions. In addition,
10,000 Chicago Transit Authority workers face a contract fight this
year.

4,000 General Electric Appliance workers in Louisville, Kentucky,
who rejected a wage-cutting deal recommended by the local and national
leadership of the International Union of Electrical-Communications
Workers of America in November. The same month, 1,200 airline mechanics
at UPS’s super-hub in Louisville overwhelmingly voted to strike against
health care cuts.

38,000 Illinois state workers who are in a contract impasse with
Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s demands for sharp hikes in health
care costs and changes to overtime rules.

700 workers at Momentive Performance Materials in Waterford, New
York, north of Albany, and Willoughby, Ohio (near Cleveland) who have
been on strike for three months. It was recently revealed that a key
advisor to president-elect Donald Trump, Blackstone Group founder and
CEO Stephen Schwarzman, owns a stake in Momentive.

The assault on health care, pensions and wages was at the center of
Obama’s economic policies. This will only be intensified under Trump.
Some 120,000 retired coal miners and their dependents face the cut off
of health and retirement benefits, some as early as April, because of
the near-bankruptcy of the United Mine Workers funds.

Wednesday, January 4, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, journalist
Afrah Shawki is released by her kidnappers, the Mosul slog continues,
Barack Obama couldn't throw a parade for the troops who served overseas
despite promising he would but today Barack stages a military parade for
himself, and much more.

Oddly omitted from the ongoing evaluations of Barack Obama’s “legacy” is
the fact that the U.S. is currently waging a ground war in Iraq, the
country Obama was elected with a specific mandate to withdraw U.S.
troops from. He launched his campaign in 2007 firmly on the premise that
the Iraq War was a mistake, not just that it had been managed
incorrectly (as his opponent Hillary would claim, much to her
detriment) — but that the fundamental philosophy which undergirded
George W. Bush’s misadventure was inherently wrongheaded.

Fake news is "What did Donald Trump say on Twitter!!!! I'm so outraged!!!!"

Real news is an ongoing war.

Real news is that Barack broke his promise to end the Iraq War -- the promise that got him elected in the first place.

Eight years later, the Iraq War continues.

We highlighted one of his speeches -- where he took shots at Hillary -- yesterday.

Barack's never kept any of his promises.

It's amazing how the media can ignore his broken promise on Iraq --
until you remember how he promised to end veterans homelessness and then
the date for that passed and it wasn't ended and the media swept that
under the rug as well.

Eight years ago, Barack was sworn in as president and he won the primary and the election on his promise to end the Iraq War.

He leaves office having failed to do so and fake news is what the press serves up to avoid reporting that basic fact.

Working for CNN beginning in the 90s, Jane worked out a deal where she wouldn't offer any 'reporting' too objectionable so as to be allowed to remain in Iraq.

Eason Jordan would publicly confirm the whispers in his now infamous NYT column.

Jane would continue this under thug and prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The Hawija massacre was an especially problematic 'report' for Jane. Long before the slaughter took place, Nouri was shaping what was about to come. For example, the Friday before. And Jane had Tweeted that day a Tweet that, after the massacre was carried out, would reveal that Nouri was a liar.

At the time she Tweeted it, she didn't realize its importance.

Once it became obvious, it was time for her to disappear the Tweet.

And she'd never mention, in any of her 'reporting,' that man shot dead on Friday.

Because now she knew it might embarrass Nouri.

And good whores don't ever piss of their johns.

To be clear, for a few dollars more, Jane will probably piss on a prime minister but she'll never risk pissing him off.

So it was with Afrah.

While she was kidnapped and needed the attention, Jane Arraf was silent.

While her life hung in the balance, Jane was more interested in bad NEW YORKER cartoons.

But once the woman was released and her kidnapping was no longer a global embarrassment to prime minister Hayder al-Abadi, The Whore of Baghdad could finally mention her.

And Jane's left to sing her theme song:

Sometimes it's hard to be a ho dogwhoring out your name for just one manYou'll have bad timesAnd he'll have good timesDoin' things that you don't understandBut if you love him you'll whore for himeven though he's hard to understandAnd if you love him, Oh, cover for himCause after all he's just a thugStand By Your Thug

Every now and then, a media friend will object to my dubbing Jane Arraf
The Whore of Baghdad. They'll agree that she's sucked up to every prime
minister in Iraq and lied on their behalf but they'll try to make a
plea for her. "She [tries]." They like that one a lot.

Well this morning, I thought, let's see. Let's see if Jane tries.

She hasn't reported on Afrah's kidnapping but maybe she found time to Tweet?

If so we'll just include her in the snapshot and make no comment about her.

But true to form, The Whore of Baghdad avoids any topic that might embarrass a sitting p.m.

And we're going to pause on Iraq for just a minute because a DoD friend just called to say, "You'll want to take a look at our website."

Indeed.

You won't believe what the little fancy boy has done now.

A farewell parade.

For himself.

He couldn't be bothered with doing one parade for any returning service members.

Remember that?

But fancy boy can do a parade for himself?

He lied to veterans and told them in 2011 that there would be a parade in 2012.

He lied.

There was never a parade.

But the celebrity in chief can stage a parade for himself?

While US service members are stationed in multiple war zones, fancy boy can do a parade to himself.

His vanity knows no bounds.

If you missed it, check out THIRD's "Barack Gone Nuts" and pay attention to the photo -- official White House photo -- accompanying it of Barack (as he talks to Kevin Costner) standing in front of a photo of himself . . . pointing at himself in the mirror.

Today you can live stream the parade Barack's staged for himself -- with taxpayer dollars.

You can't live stream a parade he staged for service members because . . . well . . . in eight years of the presidency . . . despite promises . . . he never got around to staging a parade for the troops.

What a sweet little fancy boy Barack's been.

Okay, before that phone call, we were working up to noting that CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq had Tweeted at least twice on Afrah while she was missing and that, with two other CNN reporters, he covers her release here.

Back in October, Elise just knew her "full f**king throttle" (her term, she put it in the mouth of a non-existent person, she's the Gina Chon to John's Brett McGurk) man was going to be a hero -- why? Because she's demented.